Reviews

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

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majasbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

good god do I wish I had read this before I watched the Handmaiden, which is a Korean movie adaptation of this book. My experience definitely wasn’t as good as someone’s who doesn’t know the reveals and twists of this story, naturally.

Over all, I like this but there’s something about this book that just doesn’t quite click with me as much as I would want it to so I can’t give it more than 4 stars but I have no idea what that something is

sjrance's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

annalucy14's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

vacantbones's review against another edition

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3.0

And so you see it is love - not scorn, not malice; only love - that makes me harm her, in the end.

As 2022 chugs along and I continue my quest to read several books a month from the far end of my TBR list, I find myself wondering: how did some of these books end up on the list? I don't mean this in a bad way, necessarily, but I have my staple genres that I stick to and those that I tend to avoid. Namely, I generally find myself bored to tears by historical fiction. Like the thieves among its pages, Fingersmith sneaked onto my reading list without a second glance.

I enjoyed this read much more than I would've thought thanks to the interesting plot and characters and the romance that unfolds before our eyes. Sue and Maud are both strong narrators that can carry a story.

This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but Fingersmith was just *way* too long for my liking. The retelling of certain events through Maud's eyes provides important context but also makes the read feel tediously long, and I could've done without how detailed the madhouse scenes are. A beautiful story is being told but my interest continued to ebb and flow until the very end.

zkd365's review against another edition

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2.0

this book just didn’t do it for me… it felt way too long, and the characters’ thoughts (at least Sue’s) felt way too repetitive. the ending almost didn’t fit, but i was too tired to wonder if it actually made sense. the language was a bit murky at times, and i found myself falling out of love with the writing. i liked the book at first, but then the chapters were all 40-50 pages long, and i got really tired of the long chapters. i’m just glad i finished the book…